Monday, May 29, 2006

On the Yogya Earthquake

I wanted to write about the Yogyakarta Earthquake, but decided to wait. For some reasons, I felt that I am exploiting the victims by generating traffic to my blogs. I know that it is not the case, but that's how I felt. But, on the other hand, I wanted to say my condolence to all the victims and their families. So, this post. The heck with traffic.

Our research center (Microelectronic Center) the university was shocked by a news that one of our researcher - Waris, who is doing his doctorate, passed away during the quake. He went to Bantul for a holiday with his family. Our deepest sympathy and condolence to his family. We will miss him.

I was born in Yogyakarta. I even make jokes about Yogya, its people, and technology. It is a special city for me. I am sad to see what happened to Yogyakarta and its people. I hope they can get through this as soon as possible and as painless as possible. Hang on. May God be with you.

Hi Pak Budi & Pak dn-i,Based on my experience living in Yogya several years ago when I studied at Gadjah Mada University, I can say that Yogya is a city of harmony and solidarity. The inter faith forum whose members are religious groups (Islamic groups, Christian groups, Hindu, Budha and several syncretic groups: most notably Kejawen, traditional teaching which mixes Hinduism, Buddhism and Islamis) is strong and supported by society to keep Yogya as a safe city (Solo, the neighbouring city has been burnt several times due to social & political conflicts).There is one famous place of whorship in Pusat Kateketik (a local Catholic group) where people shares a place for Jumah prayer (Islam), Sunday prayer (Chatolic) etc.but I never heard any place in Yogya where people can share their place of whorship.The bottom line is, Yogya is the center of Kejawen teaching, where people nominally identified themselves as muslim but traditionally practice some lemen of Hinduism & Buddhism. so syncretism, along with a strong drive for keeping Yogya as a safe haven would allow people to share their place of whorship.agam http://agamfat.multiply.com/